Self-Hosted Workflow Automation: A Practical Agency Guide

Everything you need to run n8n on a VPS, protect credentials, and deliver workflows to clients through a polished portal.

Infrastructure overview

• n8n on a $20/mo VPS (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM handles most agency workloads)
• nginx as reverse proxy with SSL termination
• PostgreSQL as n8n's execution database (not SQLite)
• Redis for n8n queue mode (required for high-volume workflows)

Security checklist

• n8n web UI never exposed publicly (only webhooks via nginx)
• Webhook paths include a secret token in the URL
• Client credentials stored encrypted (AES-256-GCM) in your portal DB
• n8n API key never in frontend bundle

Client delivery

Use Genauton to give clients a portal where they can trigger workflows, view run history, and manage their credentials. The n8n URL stays hidden.